Speaker Details
Karen Morris
Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, Chartis Insurance
Karen A. Morris is Chief Innovation Officer for Chartis Insurance, one of the worlds largest general insurance companies. She has specialised in innovation strategy and execution for many years and was instrumental in the creation of Chartis Innovation Practice. Ms Morris is also an adjunct professor at Fordham University in New York, teaching innovation as part of the MBA programme. She is on the Advisory Board of the Howe School of Business at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, and is a co-founder and director of the Global Sourcing Council, a not-for-profit organisation committed to economic and sustainable best practice in the domain of global sourcing. She is a nominated Guardian Leader of the diversity-focused leadership development and training network Guru Nation, and is also a member-elect of the prestigious International Association of Defense Counsel. Ms Morris has spent over 20 years in international commercial roles. An English barrister, she began her career in private practice as a multi-jurisdictional tax and transactional specialist with a leading global law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius. She assumed a role as UK General Counsel and Divisional General Counsel for Europe with the global disposable consumer goods business Scott Paper, subsequently Kimberly-Clark. Ms Morris then moved into the financial services industry where she has held legal and commercial roles for over 14 years. Initially entering the insurance sector as Corporate General Counsel and Company Secretary of Chubb Insurance Company of Europe in London, Ms Morris created a new legal advisory function dedicated to product and service innovation. She then assumed leadership of Chubbs Specialty Lines underwriting business for Southern Europe. In 2004 she accepted a role at AIU Holdings to drive its global insurance operations innovation and new product development activities for financial, commercial and consumer lines. Ms Morris holds graduate and post-graduate qualifications in English, French and Law.
